Last Call
by texmex327
Summary: Contains spoilers from the first two episodes of season 8


It's one of those things that you just can't help. When you read something regarding spoilers and the idea doesn't leave your head.

Contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Season 8, everything else is just my imagination hard at work

Special thanks to FallenForFlack from talkcsi for betaing for me…also thanks to EmilyRocks from talkcsi and Chris71na for letting me run this past you.

Enjoy!

Last Call—

Calleigh:

She sat at the end of the bar, not feeling much like socializing with her co-workers. Truth is, she wasn't in the festive mood. It's not that she didn't want to join in welcoming Jesse back to Miami properly, it was just that she was a million miles away with the Cuban who had been occupying her mind for the past few months. It just didn't feel right without him there with the team, not being there with her at his side. It was a loneliness she hated. She had never become dependent on a man, but that was before Eric. She discovered long ago that they both needed each other, even if they would never admit it.

She hated feeling like this. She hated that they were fighting. She hated it even more that she had told him that they needed a break. She told him that it was for the best for everyone involved. She was shielding her heart she told herself. All the while breaking it into a million pieces at the same time. She did the best she could to hide the fact that she was devastated to know that Eric called Natalia and not her. She fought back the tears when she heard that he had immediately asked about her and her well-being. But the doubt still lingered in her mind, if he was so concerned about me why didn't he call me? Why her?

Natalia didn't mean to bring up Eric's shooting, it just happened. Natalia would later tell her that she understood, yet when she had brought it up earlier, Natalia questioned her motives. She seemed almost accusatory. How could you not know Eric was in the car she asked her? Calleigh steadied herself as she began to form her response. The words stumbling from her lips, shoot to kill is what she told her. That is the way we were trained, Calleigh reminded her. Yet every time she closes her eyes she sees Eric staring right back at her and she sees him lying in a coma. Alexx's words coming back to haunt her every time she closes her eyes. Without this surgery, he will die.

She sat at the bar playing with the fruity drink that she had been babysitting for over an hour and a half. Normally she would have been on her third drink, but her mind was taking her back to the last time she had been at the same bar with the same man who was overpowering her mind. They had been there the weekend prior to the shooting to celebrate his sister's birthday. A smile forms on her face as she remembers that night and the fun they had, just the two of them without a care in the world.

She feels like she is waiting an eternity for a phone call that may never come. Her heart breaks a little more each time when she realizes that it is because of her he won't call. She was the one who told him that she didn't need him, but yet at that exact moment she needed him more than he could know.

She flips open her phone only to see a picture of them staring back at her. It was a picture of that same weekend when they were last there. It feels like a million years ago, they were happy, they were in love. She puts her head down to hide the tears that have threatened to fall from her eyes. Crying shows weakness and she will not show her co-workers just how much this has affected her. She scrolls through her saved text messages looking for the one she has to look at every day.

I love you, Stay safe. Have a good day beautiful.

She looks at it every night before she tries to go to bed and every morning when she is ripped away from her dreams of him. It's her reminder that yes he does love her, even if she feels as if she doesn't deserve it.

She lets out a deep sigh as she closes her phone shut. She notices the bartender come up to her and ask her if she would like another drink before last call. She shakes her head no and resumes playing with the almost untouched drink. As she hears the bartender call out for last call she can hear her co-workers let out a loud collective sigh. She turns around to look at them and realizes that he still isn't there. This isn't a movie where he will appear out of nowhere and take her into his arms and kiss her passionately. He isn't going to show up before last call and ask to look for his girlfriend. This is her life and it's pretty shitty right now. This isn't a fairy tale; this is real life and real heartache.

Eric:

He wishes he could say that it was different this time, but he would be lying. He wishes he could take that bottle of Jose Cuervo that has been sitting in the fridge and just drink it to take away the pain he felt from losing her. He reluctantly agreed that they should take a break. He could feel the anger rising as he thought about it. He wasn't mad at her for the shooting, he was mad at himself for letting her down.

His heart stopped when he heard the breaking news come across the television earlier in the day. He scanned the crowd outside of the lab and panicked when he didn't see Calleigh. He grabbed the phone and dialed her number. Her phone immediately went to voicemail. He tried Ryan with no success. He called Natalia and felt relieved when she answered the phone. His first instinct was to find out how she was.

"I just heard what happened, how's Calleigh?"

After several minutes he calmed down. His first instinct was to get to the lab to see if he could help in any way. But he knew that Horatio would have his head and he didn't know if Calleigh wanted to see him there.

He missed her; plain and simple. Suddenly everything that had happened the past couple of months was lost. They had argued and they had fought. But the possibility of her being hurt again took all of that away. He needed to see her, he needed to apologize to her and he needed to tell her exactly how he felt.

He was hurt that Calleigh didn't call him after the hostage situation was over. He was sure that Natalia had told her that he had called asking about her. The thought never crossed his mind that she would be hurt that he called Natalia and not her.

Horatio had called to tell him that Jesse Cordoza had come back to Miami and asked him if he wanted to go out for a drink. Eric refused saying that he was tired when in truth he didn't know if he could face Calleigh at the same bar they had been at only a few months before.

He feels like he is waiting for the other shoe to drop. He lost her already and when he goes back to work in a few weeks he doesn't know how exactly he will face her. His heart is broken. He scrolls down to see the last text message she sent to him the day of the shooting.

I love you Eric. Stay safe.

The pain in his head pales in comparison to the pain in his heart. He loves her; he needs her more than she will ever know.

He looks at the clock and realizes that it is almost 1:30 a.m. He is almost certain that everyone has left the bar. He decides to chance it anyway and calls a cab to drop him off at the bar where the team was supposed to meet.

He looks in through the window to see her sitting at the end of the bar alone. He is mesmerized by her beauty. He notices her staring at her phone and sees her slump her shoulders once she puts it away. He wonders if she was looking at the same thing he had been looking at only an hour before.

He promised her forever and she took forever away when she told him that they needed a break. As he stands on the outside looking in he wishes he could change everything that has happened. He is so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice Horatio come up behind him. As Horatio leads him into the bar he notices Calleigh getting ready to leave. She stops in her tracks when she sees him, the emotion of the moment getting the best of her. Her tears fall as she makes her way to him and wraps her arms around him. He gently stokes her hair and reassures her of his feelings for her. They stand there embracing each other as the tears fall from her eyes.

The words I'm sorry suddenly seem very insignificant.


End file.
